


The Sky

by ChokolatteJedi



Category: Warm Bodies (2013)
Genre: Community: 1_million_words, Freedom, Gen, Post-Apocalypse, Prompt Fic, Sunsets, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-31
Updated: 2013-07-31
Packaged: 2017-12-22 02:11:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/907653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChokolatteJedi/pseuds/ChokolatteJedi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Julie watches the sun set</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sky

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 1 Million Words Daily challenge for 7/26, "Capacious."

Julie whooped as the car sped around the tarmac. This far away from the airport's buildings, there were few vehicles and almost no Corpses wandering around. The farthest landing strip was a mess, caused by a crashing plane whose passengers had turned, but the second to last one was remarkably clear and open. The wind whipped through Julie's hair and her grin widened.

At home, inside her father's fortress, everything was crammed together. There was no wind, and the sun was often obscured by the giant walls. The sky was limited, and the taller nearby buildings made it seem even smaller. Julie vaguely remembered where they had lived before the plague, though she had been young at the time. It was in the suburbs, just out of town, right where the housing tracts met the surrounding flat country. Just beyond their driveway was the local park, and beyond it were just orchards, as far as the eye could see.

Julie and Nora would sit on the swings staring out over the orchard at the setting sun and talk about what they were going to do when they grew up. Strangely, neither one had planned on being a refugee in a zombie apocalypse.

When the attacks started, they were worse in the inner city, where people were jammed so close together. The suburbs had time to think, to plan, to get their guns ready. It wasn't until after the initial wave that her father had started fighting into town and building the camp there. It was because the resources were closer together, and so were the buildings. The same sized walls could encompass far more houses and shops in the crammed downtown areas than they could in the sprawling burbs. It was tactical thinking, which was what made her father a survivor.

But Julie missed the sky.

She had discovered the sports arena, which was wonderfully capacious, and her first gasp had echoed forever. She wasn't sure why her dad hadn't enclosed it too - all they needed to do was pour concrete across all the entrances and they had a giant, impenetrable home. She finally decided that he might have liked the many buildings on the block, which offered real separation when people needed it. The bowl would have been like on giant sleepover; no privacy. And if there was one thing her dad liked more than shooting things in the head, it was privacy.

But Julie loved the arena. She could lie on the AstroTurf and pretend it was real grass. She could gaze up at the covered dome and pretend it was a sky. She could imagine, just for a moment, that she was free, instead of being trapped within her father's towering walls all the time. There was a fine line between protection and imprisonment, and Julie wasn't sure when her father had crossed it, but she knew he had.

That was probably why she hadn't objected too much to R's request that she stay a little longer. His plane was just one more kind of imprisonment, but at least it was different. There was music, and a little bit of excitement - well, terror, really - and she could watch the sun rise and set through the windows.

She had forgotten how beautiful a sunset was.

The sun technically sank beyond the walls, giving them a much shorter day than outside, but with none of the amazing atmospheric coloring that she remembered from her childhood. Coloring that she could see from the plane. And now from the tarmac.

As she slowed the car down, the wind ceased, and she finally came to a gentle stop at the end of the runway. There wasn't a Corpse in sight, so it was safe, she was sure, to park for a few minutes. R looked at her in the way she had begun to identify as questioning, and she smiled. "I wanted to watch the sunset," she explained.

He seemed to consider that for a moment, before shrugging. "Don't... remember..." he managed to say.

She decided to interpret this as him not remembering watching it when alive. Zombies probably didn't notice things like sunsets once they were, you know, dead. "Well, we can watch this one together," Julie decided.

R smiled crookedly. "Together."

Julie smiled back and then turned to face the sun. The sky was lit up in red and yellow and purple, and high above her a shade of blue. More importantly, it just seemed to go on forever. There was emptiness and sky in every direction around her, stretching out forever to the horizon. And it was so much better than Julie remembered. So much better than lying on the AstroTurf trying to pretend. So much better than anything she had seen in years. As the sun set, Julie finally felt free.


End file.
